A former Catholic priest in the United Kingdom has pleaded guilty to over two dozen counts of sexual assault against children.

According to the Metropolitan police speaking on Tuesday, Philip Temple admitted charges of sexual assault committed against 27 children in his care in London in the 1970s and two counts of perjury.

The 66-year-old priest and a former children’s home worker said he had carried out the offenses against male and female victims living at the care homes between 1972 and 1977 when he was working in two London boroughs, Wandsworth and Lambeth.

“He then changed career to become a priest and served at Christ the King Monastery in north London, where he abused two altar boys,” the Met said.

Temple’s victims made allegations against him and he was twice tried afterwards but pleaded innocent.

“Temple was employed to care for the vulnerable children whose trust he betrayed by subjecting them to abuse,” an inspector with the Met said.

The defendant was arrested on July 6 last year.

The Office for National Statistics in Britain revealed that one in fourteen adults was sexually abused during childhood.

The findings also suggest over half a million women and over a hundred-thousand men suffered sexual assault by rape or other forms as minors.

Recent figures in the UK show the number of child sex abuse cases reported to police is dramatically on the rise, with cases being passed to police at a rate of 100 a month by the public inquiry.

The number of sexual abuse cases being reported to police in England and Wales rose 80 percent between 2012 and 2015, The Guardianreported in May.